


Daisy Stark

by Catharina2003



Series: The Daisy Stark chronicles [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Iron Fist - Fandom, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. slingshot, BAMF Natasha Romanov, BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Black Widow - Freeform, Crossover, F/F, Hurt Natasha Romanov, Hurt Skye | Daisy Johnson, Hurt Tony Stark, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Irondad, Natasha Romanoff - Freeform, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Post-Iron Man 3, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Iron Fist, Skye - Freeform, Starkling, colleen wing - Freeform, daisy stark, father daughter, quake - Freeform, watchdogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-10-31 19:00:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17855279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catharina2003/pseuds/Catharina2003
Summary: Skye/Daisy has a secret. She is not an orphan, but the daughter of Tony Stark.(guess what, I suck at summaries)





	1. How it all started

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the chapter that will tell you what went before, the plot will follow.

Tony Stark was just drinking a cup of coffee. He'd gone to a party the night before, even if he wasn't legally allowed to drink yet for another 3 months. Then his phone rang, a man started speaking. It was only after half a minute that Tony understood what the man was saying. He had a two-year-old daughter? That couldn't be right, the name of the mother, Jiaying? Apparently she had been married at the time of the affair, but the husband was assumed dead as well. They hadn't known Tony was the father, it had been kept a secret by Jiaying, but they had ran a DNA test to find any lost relatives, and Tony had won the genetic lottery. Tony vaguely remembered the Chinese woman who he had apparently impregnated. When the call was over, and Tony had said he would take care of the girl, his daughter, he leaned over the kitchen table. He was a father. No way.

The next weeks went incredibly fast, he signed a couple papers, he bought an apartment under an alias, and suddenly he had custody of a little girl, who had been named 'Daisy' by her mother. Daisy Stark, the girl immediately stole his heart. Tony loved her, and he swore to himself that she'd get a much happier and shielded childhood then his father had given him. He'd keep her a secret from the press, she'd go to a normal school, where she'd carry the last name Johnson, and he swore that he'd be present in her life.

* * *

 It's been 17 years, Daisy has grown up so much, with some help from Rodhey and Pepper, and Happy of course, Tony has raised Daisy and succeeded in keeping her a secret from the pres, and even S.H.I.E.L.D., somehow. Daisy has surpassed her father with her hacking skills, and currently speaks multiple languages, and can handle her way around engineering. She's also just as much of an anarchist as her father, so today she decided to buy a van and discover the world. Of course, he would never admit it, but Tony had tears in his eyes saying goodbye to his daughter, she had gotten a second ID, this one saying her name was Skye, no last name. It claimed her parents were unknown, and that she didn't have any siblings. This was she'd be even more difficult to track, and no one would know who she really was. This way she could make a name for herself.

Pepper, being Pepper, had tried to get  ~~~~Daisy, or Skye, to promise she would take over the company at thirty. Daisy had said she would decide on that later. The last hugs were exchanged, and Daisy got in her van and drove away.

* * *

It had been a couple years since Skye had moved in her van, and joined the Rising Tide, wanting to know more about the mysterious Jiaying, her mother. Tony didn't know much about her either, and Daisy would've believed him, if she hadn't hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. after they had approached her father. Once she'd gotten in, she'd not been able to resist the urge to find out more about her mother. The fact that the file had been so incredibly redacted had made her even more curious. She had to know more. She hadn't told her father about this, not wanting to worry him. But aside from that mystery, she did believe in some of the beliefs the Rising Tide had, mainly about transparency. So when she got a lead about a project called 'centipede', experiments to create enhanced humans she made sure she found out all she could. 

And if that meant she got to get front row seats to see a man with extreme strength climb up a building and save a woman, well, that only made her more motivated. When that meant she got busted in her van by man in suits, from S.H.I.E.L.D. nonetheless, well, that was a whole different story. However, everything ended up reasonably well, and she got to see the world from a plane called a bus, and found out a whole different side of S.H.I.E.L.D. then her father knew. 

A couple days after she'd joined the group, she realized what she knew the name 'Coulson' from, she debated telling her father, but first she wanted to know why the death had been faked. Never expose secrets until you knew the whole truth.

* * *

Skye felt incredibly guilty. She had known this group for so long now, they had survived the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and they still didn't know who she was, whose daughter she was. Skye had debated telling them so many times, but decided against. She knew Fitz was a huge fan, but she wanted to be her own person, and she felt like she was going to lose that freedom when they knew.

That still didn't mean it hurt any less to lie to them. This lie probably felt even worse than the betrayal of her having still been Rising Tide. Partially because she knew them better now, but also because this lie felt so much more selfish to keep.

* * *

 Daisy's head was spinning, her mother had been killed by her stepfather, the person who didn't have a clue she wasn't his daughter. Cal truly didn't know that Jiaying slept with Tony Stark. She hadn't told him differently either. Soon he wouldn't remember her anyways. Besides, the team still didn't know. She had told them she would change her name. It was Daisy now, granted, Daisy Johnson, but at least she could use her actual first name without anyone looking for previous records. Daisy had been so lost in thought that she didn't notice herself losing control again. For the first time in months, she called home. 

'Daisy, what is it, are you alright, I haven't heard from you in ages.' Tony says, worry dripping from his tone.

'Nothing dad,' Daisy says, making sure no one is coming in as she says the last word. 'It's just been really stressful and...' Her voice trailed off. She had to get all scrapes of courage she had in her to be able to say the words. She breathed in and out, closing her eyes. 'Something happened, I have powers, I had to learn to control them. While that happened, I found out that... my biological mother, Jiaying, was alive and... well, doesn't matter, she isn't anymore. I don't know what to think, what to feel, and I just needed someone I could trust.'

'Daise, if you want some time to collect yourself, and come home, you know I always have time for you.' Tony says.

'It's not necessary, not right now, I'm needed here.' 

'Okay, but if you change your mind... I love you.'

'Love you too, and thanks, for listening to me.'

'Not a problem.'

Daisy puts away her phone, wipes away her tears and stands up. Behind her she hears Jemma come into her little room. 

'Daisy, wheels will be up in ten, it seems like inhumans are surfacing all over the globe, we are needed.'

Daisy turns around and fakes a smile. 

'I'm coming.'

 


	2. Coming home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Lincolns death, Daisy takes a break from S.H.I.E.L.D.  
> She's going back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the events of 3.22

Tony was flying home from a meeting, subject: The Sokovia Accords.  Tony was all for groups like the Avengers being kept under control, they were just to dangerous. However, to force enhanced people, either inhumans or otherwise created, to cease such a big part of their identity, or be banned from certain jobs, like police, army, private and governmental security organizations etc. was a whole different story. Especially seeing the fact that enhanced (not inhuman) people, were mainly created within such organizations, and Tony felt the Sokovia accords had to be less strict. Even though he did understand why the laws had been placed. In all fairness, Tony's main concern was for people like Daisy, people who had kept themselves under the radar, and now would be forced on a list. Kindness aside, that could let enhanced/inhuman persons feeling hunted, trapped. Those kinds of lists had been why Jiaying and her inhumans tried to take over the world themselves. Tony was afraid that other would follow.

Of course these thoughts led to his daughter, after the call in which she had told him about her powers, she'd slowly told him more about what had happened, but he still didn't know the whole story. Tony worried about her. 

Like his thoughts had summoned her, his phone rang, caller ID showed that it was indeed Daisy calling, it'd been a long time since she'd last called, she must've been incredibly busy. 

'Dad, I -I know that it has been months since you promised I could always come home, but...' Her voice was shaking, she clearly was distressed.

'Daisy, sweetheart, you are always welcome, you don't need to ask, do you need someone to pick you up?'

'No' Through the phone Tony heard that she was taking a deep breath in. 'I can get home myself.'

'Alright, do you want to tell me what's wrong now or later?'

'Later, I love you dad.'

'I love you too, and get home safely.'

Tony wondered what happened that made Daisy take a break, she'd mentioned before that she didn't want to sign the Sokovia accords, so with S.H.I.E.LD. becoming official again that might play along, but then she wouldn't sound so... broken. He hoped no one had broken her heart. Neither for Daisy, but also for him, Tony knew he'd had to be physically restrained to prevent him from hurting whoever had hurt her.

* * *

Daisy got off on the train station in New York, she'd made certain her face had been covered by her hair during the entire trip, and had bought multiple hoodies and scarfs at different train stations, making it certain she wouldn't be traced. She'd be back home soon. Wow. She hadn't physically been home in over two years, since she'd joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to be exact. She was nervous. 

'Come on Daisy,' The girl muttered to herself. 'You've been through too much to feel nervous about going home.'

She felt something inside of her stir when saying home. Yes, the Bus had been her home, for a while, but after that, she hadn't been able to truly feel safe somewhere again. But was this still truly her home? Perhaps that was why she was so nervous, Daisy realized. She wasn't the same girl she had been when she had left.

As she left the station behind her, feeling the fresh air on her face, she saw a familiar look. Happy, with a limousine, at first Daisy was confused, she'd told Tony that she'd get home on her own, so why was Happy here? Then she'd spotted the teenage boy, stepping out of the car, walking towards a group of other teens. Daisy stiffened up, who was he? Daisy decided to walk towards Happy and ask for a ride. He looked surprised to see her, but took her home. On her question as to who the boy was, Happy's answer had brought no clarity.

'The boy is your fathers newest project, and by that I mean, your father took a liking to him, so I have a lot more work on my plate.'

Yeah, Daisy decided to ask her father, or Pepper, about it when she saw them, suspecting that she wouldn't get much more out of Happy. There was a reason he'd been hired after all.

* * *

 

Happy dropped her off at the apartment, for all of Tony's riches, this was what they both truly called home. All other places, no matter the 'private' label, were too public, this was their safety spot. Here they could be completely themselves. Daisy was glad that Happy had left before she tried to open the apartment, her hands were shaking so badly that she was surprised no vibrations were coming off. It took her three attempts to get the keys inside the hole. It took even more courage to turn around the keys and open the door. 

The first thing she noticed when coming in was that the apartment had stayed exactly the same since she left. Daisy suspected that aside from cleaning, which Tony had to do himself here, he rarely came here. The second thing was that Tony and Pepper were inside, talking. Daisy knew that they had no idea when she would arrive. How long had they been waiting? Daisy closed the door and placed her bag on the floor, It was then that Tony saw that Daisy had arrived. He quickly walked up to her and embraced her. 

'Can't breathe' 

Tony lessened his grip, but continued holding onto her until Pepper decided Tony had taken long enough.

'Give your daughter some time to get home.' It was said with a smile in her voice.

Tony released her. So Pepper quickly hugged her as well, Daisy swore she had heard Tony mutter 'hypocrite'.

'Have you had food? You must be starving', 'when was the last time you slept' Tony and Pepper started at the same time.

They led her to the kitchen table, when Daisy answered that she'd taken a nap on the train, but hadn't eaten yet, Pepper warmed up pizza.

While Daisy ate her pizza, it was clear that he was resisting asking her what was wrong, wanting to give her some time to get acclimated again. When she'd finished however, Tony's urges won.

'What happened?' Daisy wanted to buy herself some time.

'Who was the boy I saw Happy drop off at the train station?' She asked back.

Tony went still for a second, considering.

'Spider-man,' He confessed. 'Your turn, what happened.'

Daisy decided to tell them, this way she'd at least told both Pepper and Tony, one of those would brief Rodhey, so she wouldn't have to tell it twice. She told them all about Jemma, who'd gone missing, The team finding Jemma again, finding out Ward was still alive and kicking, Hive, and everything else that had happened, with Lash and Lincoln dying. At the end she was crying, and Tony gave her a hug. It had gotten late and at some point she must've fallen asleep, as she only woke up the next day.

* * *

 

'These gloves are quite ingenious, of course they could still be improved, but the person who made them clearly knew what he or she was doing.' Tony said, they had just eaten breakfast, and Tony was inspecting the gloves Daisy had showed him, explaining why she needed them had been an issue, as Tony could take a lot of pain himself, but really didn't like hearing about his daughter suffering. 

'You know what?' Tony continued, 'With the Avengers having split-up, we've got way to many compounds empty, how about you use them to train, and further improve your ability's? You can also see if you can find martial arts classes somewhere nearby as well, that way your physical fighting won't suffer from you leaving S.H.I.E.L.D.  there probably are some excellent teachers near, perhaps not as good as that Melinda May of yours, but enough to continue improving.'

Daisy didn't know if she had the energy, or the stamina, to do so, but she did see the necessity of continuing her training. So she found herself looking through a big list of martial arts trainers, the most appealing being a woman named 'Colleen Wing'. It was in a less rich part of town, but the ratings of her place were good, so she decided to step by later that day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, a slight crossover with Iron Fist, but seeing as this story takes place before Iron Fist does, we will only get to see the less annoying character from the series. I am not planning on getting Daisy in contact with the Hand, but I can't guarantee that it won't happen.
> 
> Also, Daisy and Peter meeting? I can't wait to write that.


	3. A lot of training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy goes to Colleens dojo (the Chikara Dojo) for martial arts classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't need to have seen Iron Fist before reading. I loved Colleen in the series, but I do think they mistreated her. This chapter takes place before the events of Iron Fist.

Daisy was on her way to Colleens dojo. After she'd made her decision about at which dojo she wanted to train, Daisy had sent an email, which immediately got a response. So now, just after 3 o'clock, she had her first appointment. While she walked there, she thought back at her first fight training on the bus. With Ward, she'd purposely messed up her hits and kicks while he assessed her. Of course that had meant hitting the punchbag a hundred times, the right way. It wasn't until hit 73 that she realized she could've just told Ward she’d learned to fight in a foster home.

Of course, when he taught her to shoot with a gun, she couldn't act like she did know how to use a gun. Not being capable of throwing a punch, but being an excellent shot? (Even if she'd never actually shot a person.) It would be weird. So she had messed that up too. And again, and again. She really had enjoyed seeing the impatient look on Wards face. But back then, he hadn't been evil. Or, she hadn't known that he was evil.

Daisy had been so caught up in her thinking that she almost walked past the dojo. When she walked in, she saw a woman from around her age, perhaps a little older. 

'Hello, you must be Daisy.' Upon Daisy's nod of confirmation the woman continued, 'I'm Colleen, the studio owner. In your email you mentioned that you've already had training in the martial arts before, which martial arts are you already trained in? We can build on from there.'

'Um... We'll, my trainers have been a little unconventional, I was just trained in self-defence, period.'

'Well, then, attack me. That way I can see your level of experience.'

Daisy considered for a moment, as she suspected everyone had when asked to punch someone. But then she realized that if Coleen was less good than she was, than she wouldn't be fit to be a teacher, let alone hers, anyways. Colleen looked at her expectantly, and Daisy decided to start off with a kick, knowing that Colleen would expect a punch. 

Colleen saw the kick coming just in time to duck, so daisy followed her with her fist. Her punch was blocked however and Colleen now threw a kick towards her. It was clear to Daisy that she was holding back, so Daisy increased her fighting. Daisy started to look for patterns in Colleens attacks, however it was hard to find them when it was clear Daisy had the lead in the fighting. Colleen turned around, trying to land a high kick, but Daisy rolled away and stood up right away. She followed up immediately with a left-handed punch, nearly taking Colleen by surprise. The other woman was a lot faster however, so Daisy quickly realized she was losing. She tried to do a roundhouse kick, but her foot was caught by the dojo-owner and Daisy found herself laying on her back. 

Colleen lent her a hand and pulled Daisy up again. 'You're good, clearly trained properly, but it's obvious that you're not very experienced. You don't have many moves in your arsenal yet, making your actions pretty easily predicable. You'll learn more moves eventually when we start on other disciplines.'

Daisy nodded, understanding what the other woman said. The rest of the class, they spend working on multiple techniques to hit and kick, and by the time she left she had tons of bruises on her body, but also a sense of accomplishment. Daisy had paid her, and had three more appointments scheduled this week, so she was definitely hoping to improve much in her martial arts.

* * *

When Daisy got back at the apartment, she found not just Tony, but also Pepper and Rodhey present. It was nearly seven by then, having spent over an hour shopping for new clothing before returning home. It was clear that Tony had done his best in the kitchen, because the ap artment smelled like delicious Indian spices, he'd been making nasi, a dish Daisy loved. No one would ever guess, but both Tony and Daisy knew their way around the kitchen, seeing that they couldn't just go out for dinner together. Daisy put the bag with clothing in her room before walking in the kitchen and greeting Rodhey, who gave her a hug, the look in his eyes told Daisy that Tony and Pepper had just told him about the events that had led to her return. She silently thanked them both, being really glad that she wouldn't have to explain it all again. 

'So, uncle Rodhey, have you done anything interesting lately?' She asked, having the feeling that her dad wouldn't appreciate her asking about the boy, spider-man, in Rodhey's presence. Oh, well, she'd find out eventually. 

'Well, during the fight that came after the split up from the Avengers, there was this guy who could shrink, at first that was all we thought he could do, but later we found out that he could also grow to the size of a giant, or something. I have to admit I was terrified.'

'Really? Were there any other people who weren't officially members of the Avengers?' Daisy asked, hoping that she would find out more about the teenage boy. 'Like inhumans or other enhanced people?'

'There was this guy, the spider-man from YouTube, I believe your father showed up with him, that Spider-man stole the Captains shield, before landing on a rooftop after doing a flip mid-air. I have been trying to find out who he is, but Tony has been incredibly tight-lipped.'  

Daisy figured that she did have excellent reason to ask about it now. 'Spider-man huh?' She looked at her father pointedly, 'You wouldn't mind telling more about it to your daughter, would you?'

Tony rolled his eyes. 'I'll tell you later, alright?'

Big chance 'later' was about as specific as she would get. Daisy sighed. However, Rhodes next sentence did distract her plenty. 

'Daisy, what do you say we go to one of the empty compounds meant for the Avengers tomorrow, one of those that has been abandoned, so you can train there? We can also practice on your boxing skills'

Tony joined in, 'I already had my eyes on the compound just outside Liberty state park, It's close and relatively unknown due to it never actually being taken in use. It's actually still registered as a warehouse. It will also allow you to use your powers without anyone noticing.'

'Well, how could I say no to that?' Daisy laughed. She hadn't had one on one time with Rodhey in years. She had missed her honey uncle almost as much as she had missed her father. 

The nasi was finally done, and they ate, and they laughed. 

Daisy felt something she hadn't felt in ages. She felt safe.

* * *

 

The next week went by in a blur, as promised, Rodhey had taken Daisy to the compound, where they first practiced some boxing and physical fighting. Then Daisy asked Rodhey to leave, she whipped out her gloves, and she started practicing. She had trained for hours and hours and at the end of the day she felt exhausted. She hadn't just used her powers for direct combat, but also, at the suggestion of Tony, to tap in the surrounding vibrations. This allowed her to sense much more than just what she could see. The next day she went back to Colleen, where she trained some more. Not just hand to hand, but also with a katana. At first Daisy wasn't quite sure how that would benefit her in hand-to-hand combat, but the Japanese woman had assured her that this would help Daisy with her speed, strength, and hand-eye-coordination. So Daisy practiced with her katana, and she realized she actually liked the weapon. Afterwards she went to a specialized shop, where she bought a practice and a sharp katana. She would never actually use the weapon in a fight, but a girl had to have her hobbies.

After three weeks she'd improved so vastly in her martial arts that Colleen asked Daisy if she would be interested in training with another woman, one who was about four years older, and who was much more trained in other fighting styles, but who had only recently started fighting with the katana and other fighting styles, and had enrolled only a couple weeks before Daisy. Daisy replied that it would never hurt to try.

'Well, that is up for debate.' The studio-owner had replied, with a mysterious smile.

Daisy decided that she would do her absolute best not to let it hurt. Or at least try to let it hurt just as much for whoever her sparring partner would end up being. She did hope the other woman would be fun, she could always use friends outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think the other woman will be?


	4. Some new friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy meets two new persons. One she had already met. The other was a bit more surprising.

Diasy walked into the dojo, it was going to be her first joined session with the other woman, so Daisy felt nervous. From what Colleen had told her, this woman over matched her big-time, so that definitely was cause for worry. But then again, something told her Colleen wouldn't just place her with someone knowing that Daisy wouldn't stand a chance. Colleen was there, and she was talking with another woman, the woman was a brunette, but Daisy suspected she dyed it as the woman's hair color didn't seem to match her skin color, the woman had a strong posture, like you would expect from an experienced fighter, would this be Daisy's... what to call it, classmate?

'Hello' Daisy said, causing both Colleen and the other woman to spin around startled. Daisy felt the corners of her lips pulling upwards. 

'Oh Daisy,' Colleen said, glancing at her phone. 'right on time, this will be your sparring partner for these sessions, her name is Nadine.'

'Please call me Nat, or Dina, Nadine sounds so girly.' The woman said. 

Daisy liked her immediately, with a name like Daisy she knew all about the feeling. Even if it was the name she felt most comfortable in, there was a reason 'Skye' had been her alias.

'I will, my name's Daisy, though you probably already knew.'

Nat smiled. 'That's true.'

'Alright, then how about we start with the training?' Colleen said, she didn't like any interruptions. 'if you can get your  _ bokken _ then we will start off with some  _ kata _ and then you can practice on each other.'

Daisy took her own  _ bokken _ from her bag, and saw Nat doing the same. If Daisy hadn't realized her sparring partner was good already, she did now. Only someone who knew what it was like to really fight, knew the importance of using a weapon you were used to, instead of a new one every time. It was that way with knives, guns, and, as Daisy had found out in the past weeks, swords as well.

They went through the  _ kata _ easily, following Colleens moves. Colleen seemed even more alert for mistakes then she was during the privates, but clearly she was satisfied with both Daisy and Nat's performances. When they were finished with the  _ kata _ they started with the actual fighting. Nat's movements told Daisy that the other woman was practiced in many more martial arts than just this part of karate that they were currently doing, but Daisy had grown quite good with the katana and apparently fighting with swords had not been part of her previous training anymore then it had been a part of Daisy's. Result was that while Nat's footwork was much and much better, Daisy still could keep up with her swordsmanship. 

At some point Colleen let them stop and gave then pointers and tips. They started fighting again, both of them paying more attention to their techniques, but also growing tired, it was only when Daisy felt her arms starting to hurt, that she realized how much she had learned to endure at S.H.I.E.L.D., if she had never met Coulson, life would have been so different. Even if she had eventually started training in this dojo, she would've just given up on fighting the second her arms had grown tired. That had been the kind of girl she used to be. That was what she did every time she had trained in boxing or judo with Rodhey or her father. Now, she would never, she just bit though the pain in her muscles, accepted the fact that she would wake up sore the next day, and fought on. They must've fought longer then Daisy had realized because Colleen made them stop again, this time because the two hours of training had finished. 

Daisy put her  _ bokken  _ back in her bag and studied Nat properly, she looked familiar, the way she looked through her eyes, the way she moved, Daisy knew for sure she'd seen the woman somewhere before. She just couldn't figure out where. Daisy shook her head. She'd figure it out eventually. She always did.

Before walking out she asked Nat for her number, so they could hang out sometime. The smile the other woman gave her was genuine and Nat's number got added in her contacts. She also took a picture 'making the contacts more personal'. Daisy planned running a facial (she still had access to the FBI/old S.H.I.E.L.D./CIA etc databases, and she'd made a program that also sought for matches on the internet.

* * *

 

When she got home however, that plan got put on a hold, as her father asked for a favor.

'Daisy, you were curious about spider-man right? Well, the boy recently got into some trouble because for all his strength, he can't actually throw a good punch, and... I was wondering if you could teach him some fight-moves, and some common sense as well, god knows the boy has even less sense of self-preservation then either of us. It'd be in the main-compound, where no-one would question you being there if you'd just be there under the guise of teaching the boy some moves. Do you mind helping?'

Well, how could she say 'no' to that?

And that was why, the next day, after an exhausting session with Colleen, she was picked up by Happy and driven to a high school, she groaned when she saw which high school it was. Of course the boy she had to train went to the same high school as she did.

They were early, Peter was still in class. A quick hack into the school (they still hadn't upgraded their security) and she saw he had PE. Well, it was time to pay that living nightmare a visit. By that she meant the subject, though spiders were definitely nightmare material. 

When Daisy walked into the gym, she was remembered of all the things that had made her hate any exercise as a teenager, endless sit-ups that felt like they had no use, climbing up on ropes and hit the ceiling, jumping-jacks. Daisy sighed, realizing these were things she did daily nowadays. What had life come to. It was then that coach Wilson spotter her. Daisy had to admit the guy was nice, even if she wished she’d have been able to skip his class. 

‘Daisy, what are you doing here?’ 

‘Oh, a friend of Peter’s asked me if I could give him some self-defence classes. The fact that PE is his last period gave me a chance to see what I would have to work on.’

The coach looked like he was going to faint. ‘You teach self-defence?’

Daisy bit back her laugh, clearly coach Wilson was trying to compare the physical exercise hating girl he knew to the woman in front of him. And clearly he just couldn’t fathom they were the same person. ‘I don’t actually teach it, I’m just pretty good at it and I don't currently have much to do, so when I got asked I accepted.’

‘Oh… You want me to get Parker, tell him you’re here?’

‘That’s not necessary, this is a meant as a surprise, and I wouldn’t want to spoil that.’

‘I honestly don’t think Parker will appreciate more workout.’ Wilson said.

Daisy realized that she quickly had to come up with an excuse. ‘Well, he will probably appreciate being able to defend himself against muggers.’ She half-lied.

Then some kid fell a couple meters down from the rope, so the coach had to go and check. The kid was already standing though, so he would probably be fine. Then the school bell rang, a sound that gave Daisy throwbacks to her own time at the school. She saw Peter walking into the locker room, so she turned around and walked back to the car that Happy had kept parked. 

Daisy saw Peter walking out of the school with his friends, she saw him spotting Happy, muttering some excuse about why he had to go. Then he walked up to the car. He asked Happy why he was being picked up, Happy responded by saying Peter would find out himself eventually. She saw the boy sighting and rolling his eyes. Daisy smiled sympathetically, she knew the feeling. When Peter stepped into the car and saw Daisy sitting there, his eyes widened, he clearly was wondering who Daisy was and why she was there. Daisy knew that Peter was just as much of a secret as she was herself, so she knew what Peter was thinking. 

'Hi, I'm Daisy...' She briefly considered telling the boy that Tony was her father, but she decided to keep that until later, until she found out how good he was at keeping secrets to be precise. 'Tony asked me to teach you some self-defence moves.' and rationality, she added silently. 

'Peter, but you probably already knew.'

Daisy decided to steal a note from Nat's book. 'That's true.'

Peter just looked at her. He had an excellent death stare.

Daisy just shrugged.

* * *

 

It was late, Peter had just left, returning home. They had spent the first hour practicing how to properly hit, kick, and duck. The second hour they worked on learning Peter how to immediately hit someone while he is still in the movement and speed of his swing. Then they had just talked some more, Daisy telling him about her time at the school, how she had started to excel at hacking, how she had hacked the school as her senior year prank. After a while talking, she decided that she could trust Peter with the knowledge of who she truly was. She told him about her time growing up, the great lengths Tony had gone avoiding the press while in Disneyland. (he had dyed his hair pink once.) She told him about the time she'd had to prevent being a cosplayer to get out of the tower unnoticed just before the battle of New York, when she'd returned home for a visit. Peter told her about how Tony had suddenly been in his living room when he came home from school. How he'd gone along to Germany, how he'd fought with Captain America and the Winter Soldier. He laughed when he described the shock on the Winter Soldiers face when the man had heard his voice. 

Eventually it had gotten late, and Peter returned home. Daisy asked Happy to return her to the apartment, and just before she fell asleep she realized where she knew Nat from. The woman might've been introduced as Nadine, but Nat was also short for another name. Natasha.

Her sparring partner was Natasha Romanoff, the black widow.

Well shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't know:  
> bokken are practice swords in Karate.  
> Kata are the 'routines' of movements that are used in Karate.
> 
> Who had expected the revelation? It may have been kind of obvious.


	5. Nat knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nat finds out what Daisy knows.  
> Daisy deals with guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last two parts (it has four) are a bit darker than I originally planned. (Daisy feeling guilty about Lincoln.) But I don't think they will be triggering. However, if you are easily triggered, just stop reading after the second part, and I'll add what you need to know in the end notes. (It's not very descriptive, so I doubt it will be needed, but better safe then sorry.)

Daisy felt her back slam to the ground. She was sparring with Nat, the freaking Black Widow. It had been a week since she had realized but it still felt weird to think about. Weirder to think about, was the fact that even in hand-to-hand combat, Daisy could hold her own. Sure, Nat still won about 80% of the time, but Daisy was perfectly capable of standing her ground. If the fight was real, Daisy would be able to survive until reinforcements came. That combined with the fact that Daisy still had powers....   
  
Daisy was aware that she could hold her own against her father, and Rodhey as well. even before this training started with Colleen, May had taught her enough for her to be superior in regular combat (them no suits, she no powers.), and when using her powers she could blow their suits out of the sky. But this, the fact that she, when using her powers, could defeat the Black Widow. That was a weird thought. It felt much closer to 'being as good as an Avenger.' then it was when training with Rodhey or her father.   
  
Daisy stood back up again and the fighting started anew.

Daisy nearly limped out of the dojo. The training session had been hard, and if her brain hadn't told her before, her body did now. She longed for some rest, specifically on a chair in the sun. With some alcohol. She said as much to Nat.

‘Mind if I join you?’ the world-famous assassin and Avenger asked her.

‘Why not?’ Daisy responded. The past week they'd also met up outside of the dojo a couple times, she and Nat kept too many secrets from each other to truly be friends, but they were both trying to become friends. This would be a good opportunity to tell Nat that she knew. She didn't immediately tell the Russian that Stark was her father, so that was a slight obstacle, but Nat deserved to know she knew.

They were sitting on a terrace in the sun and Daisy was trying to find a good way to tell Nat she knew, however, Nat had just started a story about a vacation to Italy with her boyfriend. Somehow Daisy doubted that while captain America and Iron Man were fighting, Nat would’ve gone on a vacation to Italy, so she assumed it was made up. Daisy waited until Nat was trying to find a new lie to add to the story before she said it. 

‘Nat, you can stop making up fake stories, I know you’re the Black Widow.’ 

She’d said it. Daisy thanked god, even if she was an atheist, that she hadn’t done anything as awkward as her first encounter with Mike Peterson had been. Daisy still cringed when she thought of it.

Natasha’s face grew more serious. It was obvious to anyone who knew the signs that Nat was assessing whether she was a threat. 

‘Don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone, I’m not planning on telling anyone either. I just… recognized you.’

That seemed to make Nat even more suspicious. It probably didn’t happen often that someone looked straight through her disguise. But then again, Daisy had met her during martial arts training, in New York, she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and she was Tony Stark's daughter. The circumstances were slightly different than Nat, Natasha, was used to.

Nat seemed to get over the surprise. ‘When did you realize it was me?’

‘Last week, it clicked, before that, you just looked familiar, like I’d seen you before. It was kind of a big shock, which is why I didn’t tell you I knew until today.’

Nat wanted to respond, but of course their waitress picked that exact moment to bring their food. 

* * *

 

Natasha sighed. Her head was spinning, this woman, younger than she was, had looked through her disguise easily, apparently even within a couple days. It was most definitely impressive. Somehow, Natasha did feel she could trust the woman. Something about her seemed weirdly familiar, even if she didn’t think they’d met before.

She was currently explaining that she probably would’ve figured things out anyways, seeing as she had a picture of Natasha and (probably illegal) access to multiple government agencies. Natasha listened along, she knew enough of tech to be able to follow Daisy’s explanation about how she could find out who Natasha was just with a program to search the internet. 

When Daisy looked at Natasha to see if she was still following, Natasha was blown away by her resemblance to Tony at that moment. A split-second later the resemblance had already disappeared, but now Nat could place why certain movements that Daisy did were so familiar. 

It was funny, if you saw Daisy sitting like that it was easy to forget that she excelled at martial arts. Yes, Natasha could beat her, but the fact that sometimes Daisy won was already a rarity. Not to mention the fact that she apparently was a master hacker. The Avenger realised she would need to be careful around this girl. The combination of her looking so much like Tony Stark and her seeming like a nervous girl all the time got Natasha to lower her guard. Which was dangerous considering the fact that she was so clearly a threat. Natasha decided to do a thorough background check on the woman opposite of her. Even if she was a good hacker, a faked background always had some holes in it. Daisy might be good with computers, but so was Nat.

 

* * *

_ Third part: (again, if you are easily triggered you can just read the endnotes, and then this chapter is skippable.) (It isn't very descriptive however, so I doubt it is very much necessary)  _

* * *

 

Daisy walked into the compound where she’d been training. In the past week, she’d moved some clothing here as well. Because the Avengers had disbanded, Tony had twice the pressure and often wasn’t home. Slowly Daisy spent more time at the compound often sleeping in one of the guestrooms, cooking in the kitchen there, and even her training sessions with Peter now took place in the compound. 

Besides all that. Daisy had to admit there was another reason why she slowly started to move out of the apartment. She had slowly started going after the watchdogs. Her father knew about that of course, it had started to get some slight media attention, and F.R.I.D.A.Y. picked up on it. But what he didn’t know, was that while she was going after them, she sometimes didn’t take her gloves. Or, she only took her gloves when she knew she would need to use her powers a lot. Partially she didn’t take them to avoid people realizing she needed them, the gloves were too recognizable. But also because… She deserved it. Lincoln had died because of her. She deserved to feel the pain for not having stopped him. For not realizing what he was going to do faster.

She didn’t want to bother her father with it. When she had hacked into F.R.I.D.A.Y. she found out that he had been suffering from PTSD and panic attacks in the last years as well. She couldn’t burden him with this as well. She’d ruined enough lives.

Daisy felt numb. The pain broke through it.

However, she had to spare her arms, she had to be in top condition if she wanted to take down the watchdogs. So she started punching the bags. 

Peter stood in the doorway of the training room in the compound. He had wanted to train, either on his own or with Daisy. He felt like he needed to be better. So after he had finished his school project with Ned and M.J., he had gone to the compound.

* * *

 

However, he had been standing here for nearly ten minutes now. During all that time, Daisy had been hitting the bag again, and again, and again. By now her fingers were swollen and bloody. He was Spider-Man, he was supposed to help people. But he had no idea how to help people from themselves. 

He wanted to call Mr. Stark, but he was afraid that she would only grow more seclusive. It might be selfish, but Peter also realized that if he told her father, she wouldn’t want to train with him anymore. He at least needed to get her attention somewhere else then whatever she was thinking about now.

‘Daisy, hi, I just walked into the compound, wanting to train… But if you are busy?’

Daisy looked up. Peter could see that she’d been crying. But she forced a smile.

‘Oh no, no problem, give me three seconds to get myself alright and then we can spar for a bit.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Daisy has been going after the watchdogs (without her gloves) and almost permanently moved into the compound and out of the apartment.


	6. Secrets revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has panic attack, Natasha gets shot.  
> This leads to some secrets being unvealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am considering to change the ratings due to the panic attacks.   
> I am purposely not being too descriptive but if you are easily triggered...

Daisy walked into her father's mansion, she didn’t really come there often, as she had to avoid being spotted, but her father had some computer parts lying around and Daisy needed more speed for what she was doing. She’d build an entire program to detect where people are using facial recognition on social media, however, she would need a lot more power to get the program to find something before the person had left there already.

On her way here she’d had to avoid being spotted by the paparazzi permanently staking out the most used Stark mention. That had included in climbing multiple trees and fences, and jumping over a rooftop. 

She’d considered asking Happy, but apparently, the guy was driving Peter around town to some science fair. Daisy had laughed at that notion, knowing how annoyed Happy would be doing something like that. She'd never heard the head of security not mutter about being used as a babysitter when the not-so-happy had to drive her around. Then again, the boy had gotten into some more problems with criminals, so Tony had decided they had to keep him protected. Even if Peter was perfectly capable of protecting himself.

As Daisy walked in however, the house was dark, weird. She thought Tony went home after 8 PM, it was 9 already. Daisy looked around in the dark, she considered asking F.R.I.D.A.Y. to turn on the light, but she decided against it. Maybe Tony had finally gotten so tired he'd fallen asleep in his workspace.  She had to go there anyways, so she tiptoeed to where she vaguely remembered Tony's workspace being. 

What she saw there had her heart stop for a second. Her father was curled up on the ground, she could hear him breathing heavily, he was having a panic attack. It took Daisy a few moments to gather her thoughts, 

Daisy ran up to him, hear brain trying to remember what to do in case of a panic attack. 

She forced herself to calm down, removing the panic from her voice.

'Tony, it's not really happening, you're here, in your lab.’ Daisy noticed her father responding to the sound of her voice, so she continued. ‘'It's me Daisy, I took a break from work, remember? You, Pepper and me ate dinner on my first evening back.’ Daisy continued talking, first about her life since she'd returned, then about her team. She talked about inventions Fitz had made, about her pretending to not understand the machanisms, but actually had, she talked and talked, her father slowly recovering. She made sure to avoid any subject that had anything to do with Iron Man or the Avengers. The fact the attack was so strong meant that it was either of a recent event or something must've warranted a big trigger. Daisy had to stay fully focussed to avoid letting the anger towards whoever had done this to her father show. 

Once Tony was fully back to the present he sighed. ‘I didn't want you to find out like this.’

'Find out what?’ All the control over her voice that Daisy had maintained during her fathers attack had dissapeared now. Her voice was shaking, as were her hands. As was the room. Daisy closed her eyes, breathing in, and out, and in again. 

‘'What happened.’ Tony said. ‘I actually was hoping no one would find out.’

Daisy signed, her father's need to carry the world on his shoulders easily rivaled her own. She suspected that not even Rodhey nor Pepper knew what was going on with Tony.

Tony took a deep breath and talked, about the accords, about how he'd gone to talk with Steve Rogers and their fight, ge told Daisy about how he'd never tried to kill the captain, how he'd just been angry that someone who he'd considered a friend hadn't told him something so important. How someone who had ended up closer then an ally trusted him so little. How he'd just lashed out but had never wanted to kilk the other man. And then he talked about how he'd been left for death and barely survived. 

At the end Daisy was pissed, wanting to find the damn 'captain’ and break his bones. But she also realised why he hadn't told anyone. He had known that aside from Rodhey and Pepper no one would even believe him. She hugged him. 

Eventually they stood up, and Daisy decided not to go home, and they worked on some inventions of Tony's and both ended up falling asleep, which was how Pepper found them the next morning. Daisy stayed for breakfast, belgian waffles with strawberries, and after she'd shown Pepper some effective self-defense moves, with Tony laughing from the sidelines, she left by climbing over another fence.

* * *

 

Daisy walked back into the compound, she'd just sparred with Colleen, but she hadn't completely been able to concentrate, her anger distracting her and causing her to focus more on controlling her powers then on the fight itself. Colleem had noticed so they continued with some kata for the rest of the session, focussing on controlled movement and being alert. This reminded Daisy if the Tai Chi she used to do with May, and she'd slowly started to relax. However, she did still feel the need of blowing off some steam and fighting with someone who could handle her. She'd send Rodhey a text and he'd be here in a couple more minutes.

‘Hey Daise, you said you wanted to blow off some steam?’ Daisy looked up, seeing War-machine flying there in all his glory.

'Yes, I'm currently going crazy.’ She sighed. She'd debated to herself whether she'd tell Rodhey what she'd found out, but it was her fathers secret to tell.

'Well we can't have our favourite flower going crazy can we? The healthcare in America is pricey, especially for people we have to sent to mental hospitals.’ Rodhey joked.

Daisy just rolled her eyes in response.

'Well then, Quake, unleash your rage.’

‘Quake?’ Daisy rose her eyebrows.

'Blame the media, you've gotten some news coverage.’

'Oh goddamn it’ Daisy sighed, she grabbed her globes and sent some vibrations up. Not her full powers, obviously, just a warning. Their session started, and didn't stop until both their stomachs were complaining and Daisy'd pinned Rodhey down over 5 times. And he her once. 

'Old man.’ she teased.

'Wise man.’ He corrected.

'Keep telling that to yourself.’

Daisy cut up some vegtables, added some meat, and trew it on the grill. Meanwhile Rodhey made some accompanying fish sauce. They talked some more about previous missions from both of them while waiting for the food to be finished. They might've made a little too much but who cared?

* * *

 

Natasha Romanoff stumbled through an unwelcome feeling neighbourhood, but perhaps the reason it felt so unwelcome was because of the bullet in her side. Earlier today, around ten in the morning, the chief of the NYPD had contacted her, about a crime lord that had to be apprehended, but who the NYPD didn’t have the resources for to actually catch him. She’d gone to his place and knocked out most of his helpers, using either her fists or tranquilizer darts, however, once she’d actually reached the criminal, she found out that the chief had neglected to mention something important to her. The crime lord was either enhanced or an inhuman, he had super strength, which, if Natasha would’ve known of, she could’ve just found another way to take him down, but now the tranquilizer darts didn’t work, as they weren’t strong enough, and fist to fist he had the upper hand as well, she’d taken him down, of course, and told the cops waiting outside to get him, but she’d been shot in the meantime.

She’d left before the cops had even entered, and walked towards the nearest Stark compound to get herself some medical supplies. She definitely didn’t like the man, she despised him if she was being honest. The man was so arrogant it was unbelievable, but his money was a great help. Not that she’d ever say so out loud, he didn’t need anyone else stroking his ego. 

She remembered there was an old Avengers compound in liberty state park, it was closed, so she wouldn’t have to deal with people, but it would still have recent medical supplies, for nights like these, all strongholds were kept stocked.

* * *

 

As she walked into the compound she was greeted by a delicious smell, reminding Nat that she actually hadn't eaten yet. The Black Widow stopped in her track, why were people here? She heard a man laughing, and a womans voice she vaguely recognised answering. The man sounded like Rodhey, meaning she could trust them. She walked towards the origin of the sounds and smell. Each of her steps hurting her. 

Natasha looked around the corner, she'd heard the voice correctly, it was Rodhey, but the woman…

No way…

Daisy. 

‘... And then your father decided that a good way to maintain his cover was to dive into the swimming pool declaring that he was Iron Man, worse, it worked.’ Rodhey laughed.

Natasha felt her eyes widening, she had been on that mission. Tony himself had done that. That would mean… Was Daisy Johnson actually Daisy Stark?

Natasha thought back at the day on the terrace, how she'd been thinking about how similar the two were. The russian supposed it made sense now…

She didn't have much time to think about it, as the blood loss in her body had became to much, and she got so dizzy that she face planted into the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this.  
> A lot.  
> Any comments?


	7. What happened in Budapest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nat recovers

Unfortunately, Nat was still conscious. She really wished she wasn’t, as this embarrassing moment had two witnesses. Also, it hurt like hell. Nat wasn’t certain which she liked least. Daisy ran up to Natasha and turned her around, she saw the bulletwound and ran off, probably to get the bandages. Rhodes cursed before shoving her shirt up just as much as necessary to get a good look at the wound, judging from Rhodes expression, it didn’t look well. Not that that was surprising, after all, she’d been walking with the wound for over 20 minutes now. 

Daisy came back with the first aid kit, and started to clean the wound, she barely even flinched when seeing the wound, only confirming the spies belief that the apparent young Stark was a whole lot more interesting than she pretended to be. 

'Fuck’ Natasha cursed when the iodine touched the wound. 

Daisy looked apologetic, but stern at the same time. 'Sorry, but I will still need to clean the wound.’

'I know’ Natasha replied.

Rodhey  was staring, probably realizing that she and Daisy had met before, knowing that Natasha wouldn't show a weaker side of herself to someone she didn't know well. It was clear that the man wanted to ask but decided to wait. 

Daisy worked fast, and Natasha found herself bandaged just after Rodhey had removed the food from the stove. Daisy took three plates from a cabinet and divided the food and Rodhey helped Natasha walk to the table. 

'I can walk myself, I walked all the way to this compound after all.’ 

Rhodey didn't respond.

* * *

 

Daisy sighed, she was eating with two Avengers, both of which she deemed friends, and both of which were looking at her to explain how she knew the other. How was she going to get out of this?

'So, I guess you both want an explanation so I'll start with how I know Rodhey as I suspect you've already figured out most if it.’

‘'You're going to pick someone else before your godfather?’ Rodhey asked, feigning feeling insulted.

Natasha's head came up. 'Godfather?’

'Yeah, I explain…’ Daisy sighed.

First she told Nat who her father was, Nat admitting she had figured as much from what she'd overheard, then she explained to Rodhey how they both ended up going to the same dojo and how they were paired up together.

They enjoyed the food and eventually Rodhey left, no doubt going to Tony immediately to tell him what he'd found out.

That left Natasha and Daisy in the kitchen. It was now that Dais told Natasha about her powers, and she ended up demonstrating them. As Natasha wouldn't be able to walk home in her current state, she took a room in the compound.

* * *

‘Daisy, Daisy! It's not real, it’s just a dream.’ Daisy woke up and realised the building around her was shaking. She'd had a nightmare. First it had started with Lincoln dying, following by him saying that it should've been her. Then the scene had changed, she saw Captain America walk out of the building, leaving Tony on his knees, like she'd seen in the video. But this time Tony had looked at her and said; ‘You weren't here to save me.’ The building had collapsed and this time, Tony hadn't gotten out. 

Natasha was still staring at her, holding her hands. Daisy realised the shaking was hurting the previously injured Russian and she paled. Daisy closed her eyes and willed the shaking to stop. 'Oh my god Nat, I'm so sorry.’ 

'It's not your fault Daisy, it doesn't matter.’

But it did. Her anger at Steve Rogers had been undermining her control all day and it was dangerous. She looked at her alarm clock, it was six already and Daisy knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep. She got up and picked some clothing from her closet.

'I'm going to do some Tai Chi, are you going to try and get some sleep? You need it.’

'I haven't gotten much sleep tonight anyways, I doubt I'll be able to sleep now. Do you mind if I join you?’

Daisy smiled. 'Of course not.’

* * *

 

After the Tai Chi, Daisy had made breakfast. Nat had called Colleen and canceled today's session, Daisy on her turn soon got a call from Colleen, to also cancel the session. She'd had to act like she didn't already know, like it hadn't been her that had forced Nat to have a calm day. 

By the way, convincing Nat to take it easy on her own body was hard. Like, trying to empty a bucket with a teaspoon while it rained hard.

Daisy told Nat a bit more about her background, even going as far as telling her she worked at S.H.I.E.L.D. after the fall. While talking about the team she was careful to not mention Phil's name once. 

She did sometimes say 'AC’. When Natasha asked who that was, she'd just replied, ‘His name is a mystery, it was highly classified before the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he never actually broke the secrecy afterwards.’

It wasn't a lie. Technically.

However, Nat seemed satisfied, probably thinking that now that Daisy was forthcoming on so many things, that that would mean she was forthcoming on everything.

Nat might be trained at lying and spotting lies, for Daisy it had become a second nature.

Nat also told her about multiple missions, at the end of one story she said something that made Daisy's attention go sharp.

'It was worse than Budapest.’

Daisy had heard that specific mission being referenced before. Many times in fact. Always in similar contexts.

'What happened in Budapest?’

'We don't talk about Budapest.’

These exact words had been said by Coulson so many times that Daisy sighed.

She would never find out what happened in Budapest.


	8. Meeting (old) friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy came back from meeting Jojo after hunting watchdogs, has a weird dream and then goes and meet up with Peter and Ned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some (slightly advanced) programmers speech, hope you can keep up.

‘Let me guess, you were hunting watchdogs?’ Natasha sounded amused. It was 2 in the night, but apparently Nat hadn’t felt like sleeping anymore then Daisy had.

‘Indeed.’ Daisy replied absent-mindedly, she had just gotten after a crew of watchdogs, but it hadn’t been just them she’d found. She’d ran into Jojo as well. Daisy was glad she’d taken her gloves for the mission today, because if she hadn’t, Daisy wasn’t sure what Jojo would’ve done then. Elena Rodriguez wasn’t the type of person to let a friend suffer. Not to mention the fact that she’d had to use her powers a lot more than planned. Jojo hadn’t realized but the weapon the man had used, had been an 084 that Daisy had retrieved on her second mission with the team, in Peru. The team had just started trusting Daisy again at that point. She’d blown it of course. How had the watchdogs gotten their hands on it? Another worry was the fact that somewhere in the fight, Jojo had killed her cousins murder. Daisy couldn’t blame her, but she did worry about her friend. Would this change her?

‘Hello? Earth to Daisy.’ Natasha said, the spy had basically moved into the compound as well. She’d lived in another compound up until that point, but apparently even a world-famous Avenger preferred being around another woman for a change. Daisy couldn’t blame her.

‘Yeah, sorry, I just ran into an old friend from S.H.I.E.L.D. who’d just signed the accords. It was weird seeing her again, fighting alongside her, all the while still lying to her. Lying about who I am, what I’m doing...’ Daisy gave a sad smile. ‘It just feels wrong.’

Nat nodded, understanding.

Daisy suppressed a jawn, causing Nat to push her towards her room.

‘You need to sleep.’

Daisy just rolled her eyes. ‘Yes mom.’

Natasha laughed and went into her own bedroom. Daisy had tried to sneak glances at her room, but as was probably a second nature to the spy, the bedroom was always locked. Natasha never actually allowed Daisy to even glance through the door so naturally Daisy wanted to know how the room had been decorated. Logically, Daisy reasoned it had to be Spartan, as the woman was a badass. But that didn’t stop Daisy from maintaining hope that her shelves were stacked with books, and she had some childish things. It probably was a silly hope, but it was fun to imagine it. 

Daisy fell asleep as soon as she hit her pillows. For a change her dreams weren't nightmares about real life, but a nightmare about her sneaking into the Black Widows room and some weird things on the shelves. All of which talked.

* * *

When Daisy woke up the next morning she shook her head, trying to shake the weird dream out of her head. She was certain that Natasha wouldn’t have a stuffed bear in her room that threatened her. Especially not that second part. The inhuman considered eating some food but decided against it. By now it was 8:00 Am but Daisy had learned to never sleep in while under both Wards and later May’s watching eyes. May especially would ruin you if you slept in. Even on a calm day. She’d woken up with a bucket cold water in her face once too many times. Which was why she could still not sleep after 7:30 on a day off. On a work day she would even get out of bed at 6:00. 

Daisy started with a run, the sun had already come up and the temperature was perfect. Daisy had found herself rather enjoying a run without actually running from something, so she now did it twice daily. She currently ran about 6 Miles in the morning, and nearly ten in the evening. Daisy checked her pulse on her smartwatch and with headphones in her ears she started the day of happy. 

When she came back, Nat had already started her day as well, doing a hundred push-ups. Daisy did 20 pull-ups to pass the time, and when they’d both finished, they went for breakfast. They exchanged some more mission stories Daisy telling Nat about their goodbye to Bobbi and Hunter. 

‘I’ve worked alongside them, they were good agents.’ Natasha says. 

‘They still are, no matter their job.’ 

* * *

 

Daisy’s phone rang, Nat had gone to her private with Colleen and Daisy had finished hers only an hour before. The caller ID said ‘Peter Parker.’

‘With Daisy,’

‘Hi Daisy, it’s Peter, I wanted to ask you for a favor, me and a friend are working on a project for computer science right now but our program isn’t working, it’s on a raspberry, so I can’t send it. Do you mind coming over to my house to explain what I’m doing wrong?’ Peter managed to say that in under a second, somehow. 

‘Yes of course, I’ll be there in 30.’

‘Thank you so much.’ Peter hung up the phone. Daisy smiled, this boy had a way of working himself inside of everyone’s hearts. Daisy wondered who he’d have around his fingers faster, May or Coulson. Honestly, she suspected that while AC would be nicer faster, May would truly care for him before Coulson even had the chance.

When Daisy arrived at Peter’s apartment, a woman opened the door. 

‘Hello, my name is Daisy, I know Peter through his internship, and he asked me to help him locate a problem in his program?’

‘My name is May, I’m Peters aunt, thank you for helping him, I assume you work at SI?’

‘I’m a consultant of sorts.’ 

Daisy was led through the apartment to Peter's room. The room was pretty clean, and was similar to the rooms of most teenage boys she’d met. Posters on the wall, (including an Iron Man one) toys and stuff all over the floor, there was a bookshelf with fantasy books and comics on it. Titles varying from ‘Percy Jackson, -Rick Riordan’ and ‘Harry Potter’ to comics of Batman, Superman, and even some comics of real heroes. Daisy snorted when seeing a ‘spider-man’ comic on top of one pile. Peter and another boy were sitting behind a computer screen. They’d set up the separate screen aside of a laptop, the screen showed the interface of a Raspberry without a GUI.

‘Hi Peter.’

‘Oh.’ Peter turned around, ‘Hi Daisy, this is Ned. Ned this is Daisy.’

‘You’re here to help with finding out what’s wrong?’ The other boy, Ned, asked.

‘Yes, do you mind if I have a look?’

‘Of course not.’ 

Daisy looked at the code approvingly, the boys had properly used pseudocode to indicate what they were doing aside from just programming. Daisy assumed that this ‘Ned.’ was the brains behind the program, as Peter had told her that he was better at chemistry and physics. After reading the pseudocode to find out what the program was supposed to do, she ran the program and checked the error message. Daisy rolled her eyes. The error message every programmer knew. Either the teens had forgotten a bracket or a column and it could easily be overlooked when looking for errors. Especially since they often gave the wrong line for the error. 

Daisy went back to the program, scrolled down to line 523, looked and now easily spotted the problem, there was a third bracket where there only were two needed. She corrected it, ran the program, that now worked flawlessly and admired the work.

‘Oh my god.’ Ned said. ‘How did I miss that?’

Daisy smiled. ‘I somehow doubt there is any programmer in the world who’s written a program with over a hundred lines of code without one syntax error. For as long as you can avoid the logical ones, you are doing great.’

‘I feel sorry for getting you all the way here for something as simple as a bracket.’ Peter said.

‘Don’t worry about it, it’s not like I had anything better to do. Besides, this coding is incredibly advanced for a high school student. I bet you are Ms Smith's favorite?’ That last bit was directed towards Ned.

‘Not possible, Ms Smiths hates everyone.’ Ned said. 

Daisy raised her brows at that, the woman had been her mentor and Daisy had been her favorite student. Whenever she got into trouble Ms Smith kept the notes as souvenirs. She’d visited the school a few years back and apparently there still was no one who got into trouble even slightly as much as Daisy used to. Daisy had then asked whether that meant that she was still her favorite and the woman had just raised her eyes to the ceiling and laughed. Daisy still considered that a yes.

Peter, however, nodded in agreement, so Daisy decided that they probably didn’t look up trouble as much as she herself used to do. She smirked. The boys saw that. So Daisy spent some more time with the teenagers telling them about old pranks. She also taught them some new tricks they could use when programming to decrease their number of lines. The boys reminded her slightly of Fitzsimmons and Daisy enjoyed their company.

 


	9. Some fights and some plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Nat fight some watchdogs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was hard to write.  
> But I like how it ended.  
> I considered doing this one and the next one in one, but you'll find out why I decided against it.

'Nat, try get you bokken slightly higher while in start position next time, otherwise you'll immediately be at a disadvantage. Daisy, come on. It's been three months, your focus should be on your opponent, not your footwork.' Colleen sighed, Daisy's technique was great, she just always doubted herself and then looked down. Nat on the other hand, was great in hand-to-hand combat and often forgot that even she wasn't perfect. These two both were great and experienced fighters, not to mention some of her only clients who might be able to sneak up on her and stand a chance in the fight.

That was always Colleens most important goal. Get her students to the level that they could beat her. No matter whether they were fighting in a team or alone. Colleen had been considering introducing these two to the hand, but somehow she suspected that the two women wouldn't like the hand. Then after a while she'd figured out who they really were. 'Nadine' had in fact been Natasha Romanoff - the black widow- and Daisy was also known as Quake. Even since realizing that, Colleen had slowly started introducing new methods to train them. For Daisy; control, trust in her own abilities, awareness of her surroundings, and more focus on the technique behind the fighting. For Nat; speed, awareness of her weak points, and ways to take down much stronger opponents.

Colleen thought back to how she had met Nat, the woman had been fighting over 20 trained Hydra operatives, Colleen hadn't known who the woman in front of her was, but when she saw someone fighting people yelling 'Hail Hydra!' it didn't take much convincing for her to help. After the fighting, Colleen hadn't been able to stop herself from pointing out some mistakes the spy had made and a week later the woman had just shown up saying: 'If my technique isn't perfect, then please help me improve it.' Nat had meant it as a way to intimidate Colleen, but Colleen had just given her a form for a try out period, and afterwards they'd continued to train.

Colleen knew that Nat could easily sneak up on her, kill her, etc. Nat also was better in some non-eastern fighting styles. However, when it was about Japanese, Chinese, Thai, or any other fighting style from Asia, there weren't many people in the world who could beat her.

* * *

 

When Daisy and Nat were done with their common training session, they walked back to the bus station. Before they could reach it however, they were jumped by a group of watchdogs. Daisy looked at Nat.

Nat just raised her eyebrows in return.

Both women sighed.

'So, who do we have here? Quake and a friend? What a coincidence we just stumbled on you!' Then the watchdogs attacked.

Naturally, Daisy and Natasha fought back. Daisy wasn't wearing her gloves, and she didn't want to worry Natasha, so they only fought hand-to-hand. Natasha knocked out the leader and then threw him at two others. Daisy kicked another one where it hurt, then on his head. When he fell down she turned around the punch another out of consciousness. When two others tried to beat her up, she ran towards a wall and took two vertical steps before summersaulting over the watchdogs heads. Ducking a punch from another idiot, who then didn't dodge Natasha's punch, she dive rolled in front of one of the last ones. Daisy's footprint ended up on his T-shirt and maybe temporarily in his chest as well.

There were still two men standing, one of which punched Daisy in her gut. For a second, Daisy couldn't breathe. It felt like her bloodstream had stopped and goddammit, it hurt. It took all Daisy's training not to fall back, not to cry. Both of which were her main instincts at the moment. Instead, Daisy just responded by returning the action, to the man who hadn't had that training and thus fell on his knees. She and Nat finished of the last two standing and then Nat called the police. Both woman could not believe their luck. How had they been found. Daisy had been wearing a hoodie whenever she came or left, and they always avoided camera's and other security measures.

When both ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents walked away, neither of them noticed Colleen standing in a dark corner. Sighing. Because with all their training, they really should've noticed her. Their fighting was good, but still could've been better. Especially at noticing how well they truly fought together. Really, it wasn’t any of Colleen’s business, but at this point, their ignorance was just painful.

* * *

 

Daisy was on her way to the apartment, she had promised Pepper to help with some bookkeeping. Pepper had needed some assistance and Daisy could definitely use a distraction. Or two actually, she'd just gotten back from training with Peter and even that hadn't been able to get her mind from one thing.

Natasha.

Daisy had technically finished high school at twelve, even if she'd pretended to still follow classes at school to 'keep up the guise of normal' until she'd finished senior year. By her 22nd birthday, she'd earned 6 Pads before deciding she was bored. By 26 she'd earned her 9th, and then she didn't exactly have much time to continue. Of course, her subjects had been Software engineering, Nanotechnology, Biochemistry, Applied Physics, Nuclear Physics, Data Analysis, Computer Science, Business & Management and Marketing (The last two because Pepper had threatened her of course.)(It had been a pain hiding her intelligence from Fitzsimmons.) Her subjects hadn't been 'How to deal with feelings for an internationally feared spy and Avenger from who I've seen footage saying she thinks love is for children, while this is your first time realizing you have feelings for a woman.' Of course, that was a rather specific subject. But it could still be more specific like. 'How to survive a friendly date with previously described woman.' Because once they had finally gotten on the bus yesterday, after having been attacked by the watchdogs, Nat had suggested they would go out to a fancy restaurant. Which was tonight.

Needless to say, Daisy was experiencing a bit off stress. Of course, she couldn't go to Rodhey or her father for aid, as they were Natasha's colleagues, but Pepper was safe, Pepper wouldn't betray Daisy.

When Daisy opened the door, she immediately got hugged by Pepper before being given a stack of paperwork. Daisy sighed. She had a PhD in Business & Management (against her will) but that didn't make the paperwork disappear any faster. Unfortunately.

While they were working, Daisy explained her dilemma. Pepper laughed and shook her head.

'Only you, Daise. Only you can succeed in falling in love with an even more impossible person than your father was. However, if I succeeded in winning over your fathers heart, I have no doubt you will convince Natasha. I do think that she's bi.'

Daisy let the doubt show on her face. Pepper saw it.

'You need to have more confidence.' Daisy was confident. Right?

Working together, the two woman succeeded in making the stack of paperwork disappear on the 'to do' side and grow on the 'done' side. With one final greeting, some encouragement from Pepper and a plea not to tell Tony from Daisy, Daisy left for the mall. The inhuman could definitely use a new dress. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There won't be many chapters after this. However, the next one will contain a date. So yeah.


	10. The long expected date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title is pretty self-explanatory.   
> Nat and Daisy go on a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long but...  
> School.  
> Ugh.

She came to a halt. Unbelievable. Daisy and Nat had decided on meeting each other in the park opposed to the restaurant, and apparently they had both decided to wait until the exact time they had agreed on, to move from their respective hiding places and walk towards the meeting spot. Both wanting to see the other first. So now they were just staring at each other, looking at the dresses that the other was wearing. It was too warm to put a jacket over their outfits, so Daisy could see every inch of that dress. 

That goddamn dress. Nat had chosen a dark green dress, it looked incredibly elegant and was hugging her body. The dress wasn’t at all what Daisy had expected from the Black Widow. Not that Daisy knew what she’d expected. The former assassin kept her own personality deep under wraps. But where the media saw her profession, dangerous, scornful. Daisy had learned that Nat was something different. Nat was the woman who would comfort you from a nightmare. Who might be hunted by her own demons but would always stand up for others. Daisy had expected the dress to find some midway between both sides. Or to lean more towards the latter side. However, it seemed like Nat either wanted to shield that side from public eye, not wanting to attract attention, or she was ready for Daisy to find a new aspect. 

When they walked closer to each other, the brunette noticed that Nat had also done something to her hair. It had been dyed slightly more red, and it was put into a high-updo that looked incredibly complicated. Daisy saw that her… date? was looking at her dress as well. Daisy had gone shopping, and only after at least a hundred shops, she had found the one she loved. The dress was red, and if fell just below the knees. Nothing much had been done to her own hair, but she’d applied some lipstick. Daisy really hoped Nat liked the look. But also that she didn’t look to desperate. tens, no hundreds, no thousands of insecurities clouded her mind. What if...

‘You look amazing.’ Nat smiled to her. 

‘Thanks, you clean up nice yourself.’ Daisy responded, her voice maybe a pitch higher than was normal.

‘I really hope you’ll enjoy the food at this date.’ Then Nat seemed to realize what she said. ‘As friends of course.’ Daisy’s heart sunk. Did Nat only like her as a friend?

‘Yeah… of course, as friends. I trust your judgement, I have no doubt the location will be amazing.’ Daisy really hoped she didn’t look to nervous.

Natasha offered her arm and soon both the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were walking inside of the diner. The location didn’t look too expensive, but also not too casual. They fit right in. They did get some glances from other couples. No doubt wondering whether the two women walking in were dating or just friends. Daisy felt some blood rush to her face. 

One of the waitresses came to them. ‘Do you have a reservation?’

‘Yes, it should be on the name of Rushman?’ Daisy looked surprised by this last name. But it was clear that this was a fake name. Daisy wondered why the last name sounded familiar, until she remembered. It had been Nat’s fake last name when she’d gone undercover at Stark Industries.

‘Ahh, yes, I see you have a table in that corner over there.’ The waitress accompanied them to a table in the farthest away corner from the door. Both Daisy and Nat took seats on the wall side, instead of sitting opposite to each other. That way they could oversee the entire diner and the windows. It had become a second nature to both of them.

‘So, is this a first date or?’

‘We’re just friends, thanks.’ Daisy replied. That was what Nat had clearly meant with the date. Even if Daisy wanted it to be more. Apparently, Nat didn’t.

‘Oh, alright.’ It was clear that the waitress didn’t believe them. Daisy couldn’t blame her. The waitress then left to give the woman a chance to look over their options for food.

After they had ordered, the woman found themselves talking. First light, but after a while Daisy decided to tell Nat about Lincoln. She trusted Nat with those feelings. Daisy trusted Nat enough to tell her about Ward too, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about that. The Russian held Daisy’s hand while she was talking. 

Nat in her turn, told Daisy some things about the red room. It was clear that Natasha was holding some of the more gruesome things back. But Daisy didn’t blame her. She got the picture as to how horrible the redheads life had been up to this point. 

Then their food came and the topics became more pleasant. 

After a while, Daisy was so enthusiastically telling a story that she nearly pushed over a glass. 

‘ _ try not to kill us пульсация.’  _ Nat muttered, but her voice sounded warm.

It took Daisy a second before realizing that Natasha had spoken in Russian. A language she happened to have picked up when she had gotten bored. It took her slightly longer to process the fact that Nat had a nickname for her. And that that nickname was ripple. 

‘ _ cute nickname, and don’t worry, I won’t. At least not in such a boring way.’  _ She responded.

‘Wait, you speak Russian???’ The look on Nat’s face was absolutely priceless.

‘Yes, I taught myself when I got bored.’

‘I should’ve known, seeing whose daughter you are. Let me guess, you studied on MIT under some random name? How many PhD’s do you have?’

‘Well, I studied at multiple universities, so I wouldn’t attract too much attention, but I have got 9 PhD’s, though I haven’t even told my father about three of them.’ Daisy shrugged.

Natasha’s mouth nearly fell over. 

‘Try not to spill the food on your fork.’ Daisy teased.

‘Which area’s have you studied then?’ Nat sounded both completely flabbergasted and curious.

‘I have studied;   Software engineering , Nanotechnology, Biochemistry, Applied Physics, Nuclear Physics, Data Analysis, Computer Science, Business & Management and Marketing.’ Daisy said, counting them on her fingers to make sure she’d said them all. ‘I haven’t told my father about Nanotechnology, Biochemistry and Nuclear Physics.’

‘Why not?’

‘It just never came up I guess? There was a period of time in which we were both pretty busy, me with traveling the world, him with almost being murdered, multiple times, and then joining the Avengers to defeat Loki.’

Nat was speechless for a second. ‘Well, that does make me feel less bad for being less good at hacking then you are. Though it does make me feel more stupid overall.’ She then joked. 

Daisy really hoped that she meant that as a joke, and that she hadn’t just made the former assassin feel insecure. 

Luckily they quickly changed subjects. Especially considering the fact that Russian was only one of Daisy’s spoken languages. 

They continued talking for the entire evening. Sometimes it seemed like Nat wanted to say something but decided against it. Daisy wondered what it was, but she wasn’t going to pressure her. If Natasha felt ready to say what she wanted to say, she would.

The evening was uneventful and all things considered it was a great evening. Especially when they went home and continued to talk for another couple of hours before calling it a night. 

Daisy fell asleep with a smile on her face. 


	11. Bullies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy finds out about Flash

‘Hi Nat, you’re up early.’

‘Didn’t sleep, I was up all night catching some criminals and then cleaning up their mess. If there’s any part of the accords I don’t like it is the fact that I have to clean up after the mess criminals made.’ Nat sighed. ‘You were gone a few days, where were you?’ There was no blame in her voice, just curiosity.

‘I just came back from the south, where I saw the strangest thing. There was this guy, can’t be any older than I am, whose head literally bursts into flames and morphs into a skull. It’s weird. He claims he got his powers from selling his soul to the devil or something. I needed some rest after that, if only to make certain I wasn’t dreaming it all up.’

‘It seems like we could both use some rest,’ Natasha says. ‘How about we try and get some sleep and then brunch in that cute tent that just opened up in Manhattan?’

Daisy smiles. Natasha probably wasn't planning on resting anytime soon, but she was a great friend so pretended to be tired as well. If only she wanted to be more... ‘That’s a deal.' 

At least this way, she could make sure that the Avenger took care of herself as well.

* * *

 

After brunch, they went to walk through New York, just enjoying the views from down below while there are no running civilians around them, fleeing from something, nor hostiles coming towards them. It was refreshing. Nat had seen an ice cream stand and had bought a cone for both of them. Daisy had just finished hers when she noticed a group of boys holding another boy by his shirt, beating him up. The poor boy wasn't doing anything back. Daisy doubted he even could. 

The boy was scrawny, not tall to say the least, and had brown, slightly curling hair. The boys beating him up seemed around fifteen but this boy seemed around twelv- Hold up. Was that Peter? 

'Come on Penis Parker, surely you can step down on the decathlon team? Who would even miss you? Your parents are dead, so they won't mind, you're faking that internship to get attention... Your only friend is that loser Ned...' It seemed like the boy wanted to continue, but it was now that he noticed Daisy coming towards him. She'd asked Natasha to stay behind, while she would deal with these bullies. It did seem like Nat wanted to interfere as well, but she knew that the young Stark had it handled. 

'What did you say to him?' Daisy's voice had a sharp edge.

'Nothing miss, I suggest you pass along, this is no view for a lady.'

Peter flinched. He knew that the boy had made a mistake. 'Flash...' He tried to warn. 

'Flash, that's your name? Well, _Flash_ , I suggest you quickly leave, you really don't want to piss me off.'

'Why, what could you possibly do, beat me with a purse? Yeah right. Move along lady.'

'My name is Quake, heard of me?' The brunette had taken on a sickly sweet tone.  Flash' eyes grew big, and he tried to scan for a quick way out. Fitting, Daisy thought to herself. He nearly ran. 'Before you do, however, know that if I see you bully anyone again, I'll make your life a living hell.'

The boy now really did run. As did his friends.

Now Daisy turned towards Peter. She sighed. 'How long has this been going on Pete?'

'Please don't tall Mr. Stark.' 

'I won't if you tell me, how long has this bee going on and why don't you stop it?' 

'He's been bullying me since second grade, I can't just suddenly start fighting back. That'd just serve to make people suspicious. Besides, I can take it. Others might not.' Daisy's heart ached. She was so much like the boy in so many ways. She understood why her father had taken a liking towards him. Besides the puppy eyes. Those definitely helped. 

'Alright, but the second you feel like you can't take it...'

'Then I'll contact my teachers.'

'And Stark' Daisy added.

'Not gonna happen.'  Daisy smiled. The boy was already healing and showed spirit again. She stood up, pulled Peter up as well and said goodbye to the boy while walking back at Nat. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the beginning of the end, but I have no idea how much longer the other chapters will take if I keep going at this rate.  
> I was planning on finishing this story before next week, but that will probably not happen, if I keep finding new subplots.  
> The time also keeps bypassing me, so sorry that it took so long before posting again.  
> This chapter was short, but the next one will be longer.


	12. The beginning of the end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue between Daisy and Nat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm in the middle of my test week, am running on too little sleep, and I love procrastinating.  
> See here the result.  
> Also: Thanks for anyone that's given me kudos, I can't believe over a 100 people did it.

_ ‘Daisy come home with us’ _

‘ _ Our supply keeps running low but….. But you already have it, don’t you _ ’

_ ‘It’s Yo-Yo’ _

_ ‘We’ve been out there, looking for you’ _

_ ‘Why? Why are you doing this?’ _

_ ‘She’s turned her back on us Mack’ _

_ ‘We’ve all been through terrible things. All of us. And we’ve never turned our back’ _

_ ‘And it still affects us’ _

The thoughts keep on running through Daisy’s head, when she goes to sleep, when she awakens, when she goes and brushes her teeth. Daisy wished she was still at the compound, a sting in her temples causes her to stand up from her chair. A worried face looks back at her.

When Nat had gotten a lead on some thugs she needed to infiltrate in LA, she and Daisy had made the decision to both go there. It wasn’t like Daisy hadn’t been spending more and more time herself there, so this was a good solution. They had had to move in some place less obvious, somewhere not noticeable, easy to lose a tail. Luckily, Tony still had a place here from when he lived in Miami and needed to shake reporters. Nat had been impressed with the amount of 1-day hairdye Tony still had available, even nowadays he still made sure at every place he went, there were at least two colours available. This one had even more. Especially the pink one had amused Natasha to no end. 

She’d called Tony not long after, asking if he had pictures. When Tony had denied having them, Natasha had decided to make it her side project to hack F.R.I.D.A.Y. and find those pictures. (Maybe Daisy had given her a few tips.)

They’d been here a couple of days now, and they both had been busy. That clearly hadn’t stopped Nat from figuring out something was wrong though, as she was currently looking at Daisy with her eyebrows raised. 

The younger woman took the bait. ‘When you betrayed my father, how did he forgive you?’

Nat seemed surprised by this question and thought for a second before answering. ‘I guess he understood why I had done it. Tony and I never were very close though, so it wasn’t really a betrayal that stung.’

Not like with her and her team, Daisy realised.

Nat must’ve seen the look on Daisy’s face though, as the look on her face softened and she quickly continued. ‘However, if you are worried about your own team, if they’ll forgive you. Don’t worry, if they truly are the friends you take them for, they’ll understand.’

If only. ‘I hope you’re right…’  

 

* * *

 

 

‘Do you want to get some magazines?’ Natasha asked. They were in a grocery store, as they still needed food, and were almost done. 

‘uhm..’ How to explain this…

‘I want some, it’s easier to fake being dumb if you keep up with the celebrities.’ Nat was already walking towards the magazine aisle, so the billionaire's daughter had to follow. Or rather… The playboys' daughter.

Because of course, half of the magazines displayed the newest rumour as to who Tony Stark was sleeping with. Daisy sighed. It was true that Tony and Pepper weren’t officially back together, but it was obvious to anyone who saw them that that would change. Daisy really hoped this was just a rumour and not her dad being an idiot.

Besides. She really did not need to know who her father was sleeping with. 

It seemed like Natasha had reached the same conclusion as her eyes widened. ‘OMG Daisy, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise…’

‘No one really notices if it isn’t their family on there. It’s not your fault.’

‘It must’ve been tough growing up, constantly reading these rumours.’

Daisy rolled her eyes. It had definitely been awkward. ‘Don’t worry, there have been times it came to be my advantage.’

‘How so?’

‘When I first reached the age to go out, Tony was both overprotective and in denial of the fact that I was no longer 10. When he tried to prevent me from going to a club once, I got annoyed and remarked that if I survived seeing everything about his love life, he could stand letting me go to a club with friends. He didn’t bother me that much after.’

Natasha laughed. Daisy was just glad. After she came home when not returning during the blackout, the spy had been worried about her. The inhuman couldn’t blame her. She’d not planned on being away that long herself. Unfortunately, Daisy could just control vibrations and not the watchdogs or other assholes.

When Daisy had returned, there had been a few things Nat had to say, but it had seemed that there was even more she was biting back. Daisy had finally told Nat about how she had met up with Fitz and Mack, and later with Robbie Reyes at his house after getting hurt. Nat had told her about the undercover mission. They’d talked all night, but the worried look hadn’t left Nat’s face. When Nat went to sleep, Daisy stayed up for a little bit, reading up on the newest updates in certain coding languages. 

When she did go to sleep eventually, she peeked in Nat’s room, this one didn’t have a lock on it. Nat slept so peacefully, it had made Daisy fall in love even more. Then she noticed how Nat had cuffed one hand to her bed and it had made Daisy’s heart ache. Just wanting to give Nat a hug. Daisy suspected this was a habit she’d picked up in the red room. The hacker wondered what else had happened there that the spy hadn’t told her. Daisy had to practically force herself to leave the door and walk to her own room.

Now Nat was laughing at Daisy’s story. She picked up a magazine for another mission and all Daisy could think of was how a mission like this must leave an impact on Nat. The overwhelming impulse to hug Natasha appeared again. Daisy grabbed ahold of the cart and pushed it towards the exit, just so she wouldn’t do something she’d regret. Even if not hugging the woman next to her was something she already was regretting, Nat wouldn’t appreciate it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm planning on doing two more chapters, but it might end up being more.  
> I really hope you like this chapter and where the story is going, but if you've followed AoS then you'll perhaps already know what's bound to happen soon.


	13. Decide on the pain, leave the feelings behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy makes a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This all takes place during episode 4x04 of AoS. Most of the events have been kind of glossed over, as this chapter focuses on Daisy's feels, but if it's unclear you can either rewatch the episode or read the summary here:  
> https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/agents-of-shield-season-4/52538/agents-of-shield-season-4-recap  
> Also: sorry,  
> you'll find out why.

_ ‘houses in my area’ _

_ ‘affordable apartments for two people’ _

Daisy rolled her eyes. It was obvious that Simmons was house hunting. Even for an apartment for two. She and Fitz wanted to live together? Cute. She definitely would tease Simmons about it when she saw her. And yes, it was when she saw her, and not if.

Let’s add a new house to the site Simmons looked on most to find a place. Her own one, that she had inherited from Cal. Daisy couldn’t stomach staying there anyways, so if it would be a good fit for the two it was a win, and if she happened to have to present it to her ex-colleague then that would be a… Very happy coincidence. Especially since Daisy had recently found out that the watchdogs had the list of inhumans that S.H.I.E.L.D. protected. Daisy needed to find out how, and needed to protect the inhumans.

Daisy closed off her computer when she heard Nat coming home as well, they’d agreed to not think about work or vigilantism for the night, as Nat would go in deep cover tomorrow.

* * *

‘This is the deal, take it or leave it.’

Daisy had been going after a group of watchdogs all morning, and was now watching a weapons deal going down. As one of the masked guys threw down some money, Daisy left her hiding place. ‘I say… Leave it.’

Daisy blasted the weapons on display to the ground, then threw both of the armed guards to the wall, while some other ran off.  Good. They’d be less bold next time. 

‘You go after inhumans who barely can control their powers, who do not pose any threat, but when someone who actually is a threat comes up you all run away? That says everything I need to know about you.’

Daisy directed her powers towards one of the leaders, who she had seen harassing a young girl who could change her appearance yesterday. She had only arrived once the watchdogs left, and it had been more important to get the girl to a hospital then it had been to get revenge. Now she didn’t have anything else to do. She took the money of the counter, reminding herself to donate it to the multiple charities put in place to help inhumans control their powers and protect them. Luckily there still were instances that offered protection of identity for minors and protested if the government went after them for ‘threat assessment’. Daisy scowled, it was horrible.

Then again, she’d once believed that S.H.I.E.L.D.  was wrong to keep things like this a secret, back when she’d been scared as well. She’d joined the rising tide, for gods sake. Mainly to stir things up, what side of the argument would her old self have chosen?

Her thoughts distracted her just enough to not realise that one of the men she’d thrown unconscious against the wall had awoken, and was aiming his gun at her. At least, not to realise it until she felt the stinging pain of a bullet in her shoulder. Daisy bit her lip to prevent any weakness from showing. She could not use that right now. Sending a shockwave to knock all remaining men out, she used her gloves to pick up the weapons, write a note for the police to pick these men up, leave evidence in the form of fingerprints on the gun, and finally left to get medical attention. She was supposed to meet with Simmons either way.

Once she had gone into the apartment unseen, Daisy allowed her mind to drift. It took too much energy to keep her mind in the present and she was safe now. It had been less so when she’d almost been spotted by a cop because her mind had drifted to the healthy debate about underage heroes, whether people should offer them help (Daisy argued with Peter and his safety in mind, Natasha with her own past and distrusts of single governments.) and whether they would need some help in controlling their powers. Eventually they had both said what they wanted to say and put on some music. It had turned out that both Nat and Daisy liked the song ‘Battle Scars’ by Guy Sebastion, both due to their own experiences working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and before that. The younger woman had been impressed at the spy’s ability to rap, while the spy had been pleasantly surprised with Daisy’s singing voice. Drowning in the memories of the night before, Daisy drifts away.

‘Hello’ Daisy jolts awake, immediately feeling the pain in her shoulder sting.

‘I’m here about the apartment.’ Simmons has arrived. Daisy forces herself to stand up.

‘Is anybody here?’ Daisy wants to respond, but her throat hurts so much that she can barely whisper.

Daisy has made it through the door, but collapses against it. The sound got Jemma’s attention. ‘Daisy?’

‘I’m sorry, I had nowhere else to turn to.’ Daisy groaned. Everything hurt.

A while later, Jemma had stitched Daisy up, and Daisy had explained the problem to her. Once Jemma had said that she had lie detector tests, Daisy had just put a gun to Jemma’s head, so Jemma could claim that anything that happened happened wasn’t her fault. You know, if someone puts their gun against your head, you comply.

* * *

It had been a pleasant surprise to learn that Jemma was head of science.

It had been a less pleasant one to find out Malcolm worked with the watchdogs.]

Then again, they had been saved by Robbie, which was both a pleasant surprise and something that just kept happening.

However, Daisy did not know how she felt about meeting back up with Coulson. Guilty, angry, confused.

That last part might’ve contributed to the fact that Daisy ended up fighting with a mob of watchdogs while locking Coulson and May out. Both of which returned just in time to save her life. But that was just the way things went, Daisy tried to save her team, her team ended up saving her. It had been the way of life for so long.

But then she had left. And even while she had been happy with Natasha, falling in love, teaching Peter, being taught by Colleen, it hadn’t been her team. Daisy had tried to ignore it but now she couldn’t. Daisy missed them.

Colleen was an amazing teacher, but she wasn’t the woman who would silently make tea when Daisy couldn’t sleep. 

Peter was a waterfall of words, he was sciency and cute, but still, he was only a boy, and couldn’t be a close friend like Fitz was.

Nat was amazing, and Daisy loved her, but she couldn’t talk to her as she had with Jemma.

And most of all, Daisy had missed Coulson. She could still have contact with her family when she was with the team, but not contacting Coulson while with her family was hard.

And now he was here, he had her back. 

And if she was being honest, she didn’t want to leave again.

* * *

Daisy needed to say goodbye.

 

First to Colleen, as she was the easiest: 

‘Hi Colleen, I know I had already postponed out sessions due to vacation, but I have found a new job in another city, so I can’t come to training anymore.

 

Then to Pepper, this one hurt more, as she knew Pepper was hoping the younger Stark would start fulfilling her role in the company already. The current agreement was that Daisy would get introduced to the world when she became thirty-five as the Stark heir, and that she would stop her current job to get more responsibilities until Pepper retired.:

‘Hi Pep, I am returning to S.H.I.E.L.D., our agreement still stands though. I just missed my old team a lot. Besides, Nat would never fall in love with me. It’s better if I stay away from her, before I ruin our friendship too.

Don’t overwork yourself, you’re just as bad as my father, don’t deny it. Take care of him too though, he isn’t doing as well as he pretends. Don’t tell him I said that. Bye’

Now Rodhey:

 

‘Hi Rhodey, I am returning to S.H.I.E.L.D., I realised that I missed them badly, and accidently ended up joining their missions, and I just can’t leave now. It’s confusing. I do hope you’ll contact me if anythings wrong. 

Keep an eye out for my father, he isn’t as alright as he pretends to be. Don’t forget to look after yourself as well though, you might be able to operate War Machine again, but I know you haven’t always kept on schedule with your physical therapy. I’ll keep an eye on your computer to make sure you do them. I warn you. Bye’

 

Peter:

‘Hi Pete, I’m afraid I have to stop with training you as I have returned to my job at  S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s a long story. Continue going to the compound to practice your punches and swings in safety though. I’ll send you a link to the woman I took self defence from, go there, pretend not to have super strength, learn the moves and practice them later. It’ll help you tons.  

I know you already bury Happy in phone calls, but keep me posted when something happens or if you just want to talk, about whatever. Don’t get into dangerous situations without backup or I’ll have your head. Bye.’

 

Tony:

‘Hi dad, listen, I know you were glad I left S.H.I.E.L.D., but sorry, I returned. I gotta admit, I missed my team. Coulson most of all. You know what I mean. After all, you know him too. Please tell either Rodhey or Pepper about Siberia. Or at least about the letter. Let someone in. If the roles were reversed, you’d want me to do the same. Take care of yourself alright? I’ll send Peter to bother you day and night if you don’t eat or leave the lab. Don’t think I won’t. Or that I won’t know for that matter. I long programmed F.R.I.D.A.Y.  to alert me. Bye.

 

Then the last one. The hardest one. The one Daisy had to write down as she was at loss for words about what to say. She loved Natasha and wished that that love was returned. But she’d heard Natasha say it herself. ‘Love is for children.’ There was no chance that the spy loved Daisy. So here it came:

 

‘Hi Nat. (a long sigh) I don’t know how to tell you this but I’ll have to. I’m returning to S.H.I.E.L.D., I missed my old team to much, which I didn’t realise until I ended up doing a mission with my old team. I know you won’t hear this until after your mission has finished but when you do, please call me. I wouldn’t want to lose our friendship. Besides, I won’t rest anyways until I know you’ve returned in one piece. 

I’m not certain how long you’ll stay in LA, but feel free to keep living in the apartment, or in the compound when you return. Turns out my father put both on my name. Take care of yourself. (another silence.) I need to force myself to say goodbye, but here it is… Bye’

 

A tear rolled over her cheek. ‘It’s for the best.’

‘It’s for the best.’

Daisy whispers it to herself when putting away the phone. She loves reunions, even if they are complicated, but nothing hurts as much as saying goodbye. She’d prefer leaving without saying anything, but she has to. It’d be unfair otherwise, and she doesn’t want to betray another friend.

Even if that’s all they’ll ever be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *runs, ducks, hides*  
> 'Please don't kill me'
> 
> There still is one more chapter to go, how does Nat react?
> 
>    
> (The song I refered to, Battle Scars, by Guy Sebastian is amazing, and I kinda felt like it just fitted the two women perfectly. )
> 
> Also, this chapter was way longer then I expected but I suspect you won't mind.


	14. Reaction and response

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nat reacts to Daisy leaving

It had all started when Nat had seen Daisy fight those watchdogs after training and the spy had felt her heart beat in her throat when she saw the other woman take a hit. Logically Nat knew that Daisy had been through worse, but Nat had still been worried. 

Nat didn’t do feelings, so she had been confused at this all happening. When they were on their way back however, the adrenaline having left her body completely, Natasha realised that she was in love. 

To be quite frank, it scared her. Not enough to stop her from asking Daisy on a date. But enough to keep her from telling Daisy about how she felt, she had tried multiple times and got scared every time. 

There was a reason Natalia Romanova didn’t do love. Love made people weak. Love made people vulnerable. It gave you a blind spot. Such a spot was not affordable in her line of work. 

Now she was too late from blocking it all out though, so she had two options, ignore it, or tell the woman she cared about so deeply about that she did. 

Every time that Nat tried to tell Daisy, the words got lost. The feeling was odd, unfamiliar. Nat wished she could say it made her wary, but the opposite happened. Before, the closest thing she had had to a friend had been Clint, and even they were not as close as all other friends she had known. They had trusted each other enough, each others abilities enough, that they wouldn’t feel worried when the other was off on a mission without them. Now, whenever Daisy left the compound Nat was so worried she barely slept. 

Natasha knew this feeling to be love, but it was so strange.

Then Daisy had started going on missions that took longer. It had started happening more frequently once she’d met that Ghostrider. Robbie. It had been a mission to destroy a watchdog headquarter in LA, but afterwards, she kept running into her old team, and their missions had started to overlap. Daisy hadn’t told her about it at first, but once Nat had gotten a mission in LA as well, and they shared the apartment, Daisy had opened up.

Nat was worried that Daisy might be hurt by her old team. She still cared a lot, but from what Daisy had told her, Daisy’s old team felt like they’d been betrayed. Especially that ‘Fitz’ seemed to not understand Daisy’s motives for leaving. 

Daisy had been teaching Nat some hacking tricks, claiming that those were things every hacker or spy should know. Nat had to admit it came in handy.

Especially now Nat was undercover again she realised how useful it was to be able to hack into servers within a few minutes, so she didn’t have people returning to their office before she was done. 

She’d been busy for a week now, and was almost done. Only a few more days until she had everything she needed to bring this guy to justice. The undercover work had been hard, especially since she was no longer the most secretive person in the world. The guy she had to bring down was undeniably a piece of work. He was a misogynistic arse, which made the job easier for her, but also worse to do. 

She’d need a serious dental check from all the times she’d gritted her teeth during this mission. 

Just another thing on her to-do list. On top of which: Finally telling Daisy that she loved her. 

It had taken her way too long already. She needed to do it now. She couldn’t stall it any longer.

* * *

‘Daisy? Are you home?’ Nat walked into the apartment. It was late already, so the Avenger had expected Daisy to have returned already. Then again, her housemate had no idea she’d return, so perhaps she was still on a mission or decided to go outside.

Then she looked closer, a thin layer of dust had started to form on the coffee machine. One thing both the Starks shared was their love for coffee. There was no way that Daisy had just skipped coffee for a day.

Where was she?

Maybe she had left a note? No, that it would be on the table or something. Natasha frowned. Then she saw her phone on the couch. Clicking the power button she couldn’t help but tremble slightly. Goddammit emotions, they were just in the way. Tapping with her foot impatiently she waited until she could finally fingerprint activate it. Other phones didn’t yet have that feature, but it was almost outdated for Starkphones. Daisy had rolled her eyes saying it was still hackable, by her then, she seemed to come from 3016 instead of 2016. 

Thinking of the devil. There had been a voicemail left on her phone. One from Daisy. 

The first emotion Nat felt was relief at seeing the voicemail. Then the voice whispering ‘you don’t know yet what it’s gonna say.’ decided to join in. ‘Come on Nat, the only way you’ll know what it says is by listening to it.’ Nat muttered to herself. She dialled the number for voicemail.

Daisy’s voice spoke through her phone, but she sounded sad, like she was ending something. Nat forced herself to pay attention. ‘Hi Nat. (a long sigh) I don’t know how to tell you this but I’ll have to. I’m returning to S.H.I.E.L.D., I missed my old team to much, which I didn’t realise until I ended up doing a mission with my old team. I know you won’t hear this until after your mission has finished but when you do, please call me. I wouldn’t want to lose our friendship. Besides, I won’t rest anyways until I know you’ve returned in one piece. 

I’m not certain how long you’ll stay in LA, but feel free to keep living in the apartment, or in the compound when you return. Turns out my father put both on my name. Take care of yourself. (another silence.) I need to force myself to say goodbye, but here it is… Bye’

No. No. Nononono. This couldn’t happen. Nat was supposed to tell Daisy she loved her. How could it be that the first time she fell in love, the first time she allowed herself to fall in love, she was too late?

Nat listened to the message again. And again. And again and again and again. Again until she could talk along with the words. Until she had memorized them. Then she took a deep breath and called Daisy back. Voicemail.

‘Hi Daisy, I got your voicemail. I finished my mission safely, don’t worry. I’ll be returning to New York tomorrow. Of course, you won’t lose our friendship. If you need me just call. Bye Nat.’

When Nat finished recording the voicemail she felt the tears rolling over her cheek. Friendship. She’d keep Daisy as a friend and if one day she would join a mission at S.H.I.E.L.D. and happened to walk into Daisy then that’d be great. They might not end up lovers, but they’d keep their friendship. 

Natasha promised herself that she wouldn’t walk away from Daisy. Perhaps one day she’d tell Daisy how she truly felt, but she couldn’t do it now. Not now she was returning to her team.

Natasha didn’t have many friends, she’d always seen them as a liability, the closest this she had to a friend had been Clint. 

Maybe she could try to open herself up, allow herself to grow close to the other Avengers, make new friendships, form more trust. 

Maybe, when she and Daisy would meet again, face to face, she would no longer be scared, and maybe, very maybe, she and Daisy could have a future.

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning to end this way, but I just couldn't do what I had planned.  
> I love Nat way too much to do that.  
> I really hope you like my story and are satisfied with how it ended.
> 
>  
> 
> If you are interested, I have started a new story, (post Civil War as well.) that you can check out.   
> The story is heavily team Iron Man though so don't read if you like Captain America all too much.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this, I'm planning on making this a longer work.


End file.
